


Just a Figment

by AriaBlackmoor



Category: Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry
Genre: F/F, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 22:52:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9038462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriaBlackmoor/pseuds/AriaBlackmoor
Summary: A mysterious letter arrives at Erika's door.For the tumblr When They Cry 2016 Secret Santa.





	

Erika huffed and poured a glass of tea. She looked around the room—her master's bed taking up a large portion of the space, next to it a few chairs and a small table to hold a tea set. It had been four months since her master and her master's lover had left to travel the sea of fragments once again, leaving Erika behind to tend to the house.

She had enjoyed the opportunity as a chance to relax and get to know a little bit more about her master at first, but it had quickly grown tiresome. It was beyond Erika's power to travel away from this place--she was but a piece, a mere pawn to be set aside until her master needed her. As the days passed by, the only things left remaining to grab her attention were the letters she received from those she met during her time on Rokkenjima.

Erika looked over at the stack on the tea table, three letters neatly set on top of each other. She looked at the envelope of each, immediately noting the white-and-gold embossments on the first, the sigil of the Eiserne Jungfrau plastered right in the center. The next was in the Ushiromiya head's distinctive envelope, probably that damned Battler. The last, however, worried her—orange, green, and smelling of cheap candy. There was no return address or any way to distinguish who it was from, as if it's sender was trying to pretend Erika didn't know who she was. In any other time, she would not have bat an eye at miss Lambdadelta's missives to her master, but Lambdadelta would know better how to contact her master than Erika herself did. Which means, this letter was meant for _her._

The envelope was too curious to wait on. Erika grabbed the letter opener on the tea table and tore off the seal. Inside, a single piece of konpeito, She dumped it on the table, taking care not to touch the piece of candy. It did nothing.

She frowned, disheartened it didn't react. It should go without saying this konpeito was a trap, and knowing Lady Lambdadelta it certainly wouldn't be fun for Erika. She needed someone to spring it for her. Looking at the two other letters on the table, she knew who she had to write to. She turned away, fetching some ink and began scrawling a request to her dear friend.

When she turned back to the konpeito, there were two of them.

* * *

 

Dlanor's face was as blank as usual as she examined the ever-growing pile of konpeito. By this point, it had taken over most of the room besides a small area around the entryway and the bed.

“I do not know what you expected from me, Erika.”

Erika herself was standing behind her, debating whether she was worth sending her partner in crime to her possible death. If this was some death trap, then Dlanor at least would have a life of some sort ahead of her. Erika's natural state was certainly not as kind.

She shivered, trying not to think of that cold, dark abyss again.

“I merely needed a second opinion regarding Lambdadelta's jape, dear.” Erika said, taking another step backwards.

When another konpeito popped into existence, Dlanor hopped back as well. She turned around and looked Erika, face still blank.

“You were planning on making me touch the CANDY. Do not LIE.”

Erika's began turning red, “N-no—I mean,” she put brought her hand to chest, trying to look as elegant as possible, “Of course I was! That's the kind of villain I am, after all.”

“Erika.” Her voice was as expressionless as ever, but Erika knew Dlanor's moods better than to trust that.

“What? I am the Witch of Truth after all.”

“Erika.”

Erika twitched. “Dlanor, please, we have a bigger problem to solve at the moment than these--”

Dlanor's golden claw grabbed her wrist, pulling Erika towards the smaller girl. “Let's GO.” Before Erika could fight back, she felt Dlanor's weight begin pulling her forward, leading straight into a faceplant into the konpeito.

* * *

 

Erika rubbed her head, the pain quickly going away. The fact she could think and feel was a good sign, at least she still existed. She looked up, examining the area around her. It was dark here, no features besides the bright pink ground that she was laying on. In the sky above her, there was a countless number of neon-colored stars around them. The sugary smell of the area made it clear _what_ exactly she was standing on. A short distance from her, Dlanor was also crawling to her feet. Erika ran over to meet her when a shadow fell over the both of them.

“Ohohoho, took you long enough!” the shadow said in her shrill voice. When Erika turned around, she was not surprised to see Lambdadelta floating above them.

Erika brushed a gooey piece of the konpeito planet off her and faced Lambdadelta. “I would have come sooner if I wasn't afraid you were trying to murder me!”

Lambdadelta shrugged and grinned down at her. “Oh, but I wanted to see the look of certain dread on your face when you finally gave in and came here! It would have beeeen delicious!”

“Oh? Was my reaction not enough for you?”

“No, it wasn't. Shocked, yes, but not the blood-curdling screams of terror I wanted.” Lambdadelta looked over at Dlanor, her grin growing inhumanly wide. “I'm gonna tell heaven that Eiserne Jungfrau intervened in Senate affairs without a warrant!”

Erika took a step, placing herself between Lambdadelta and Dlanor's gaze. “Dlanor was intervening as a personal favor to me, not on behalf of Eiserne Jungfrau, Lady Lambdadelta. Do not--” She felt a tug on her dress, turning to see Dlanor leaning into her ear.

“According to the section sixty-four, paragraph 87, line 12 of Heaven's Laws, Angels of the upper courts are not to enter the domains of Witches of the Senate without a prior investigation by the First COURT.”

“T-then why did you come! You've never broken the law before!” Erika said, shocked.

Before Dlanor could respond, Lambdadelta flew next to them, leaning in mere milimeters from Dlanor's face. With her left hand, she slowly stroked up her neck.

“Yes, _why_ indeed, Dlanor A. Knox.” Lambdadelta whispered to her, her voice becoming as sultry as it was shrill. It was then that Erika noticed Dlanor's still-emotionless face was beginning to turn flush.

It was Erika's turn to butt in, pushing Dlanor back behind her and away from Lambdadelta, “R-regardless, why did you bring us here, Lady Lambdadelta? Surely there's more to this than just a trick.”

Lambdadelta fell back, instantly reverting to her normal erratic self. “Ohohoho, so you want to know why I brought you here, huh?”

“Yes, that's why I asked. I don't think you'd bother me unless there was something you needed or wanted.”

Lambdadelta shook her head, finally touching her feet to the ground. “You're far too much like your master for your own good, y'know. Never giving me a chance to gloat.”

Erika grabbed the fringes of her dress and did a curtsy. “Lady Bernkastel and I merely know the value of time, 'tis all.”

“Oh, I'm _acutely_ aware of how my precious Bern tends to her time...Tell me though, just _how_ were you spending your time since she went to out into the sea of fragments again?”

“I was tending to my master's domain, as she requested of me.” Erika's voice was terse. Lambdadelta likely knew she'd been spending her time doing very little, but giving her that fact for free would not end in Erika's favor.

Lambdadelta took a step closer, her eyes narrowing. “And I'm sure you'd like nothing more to go back to tending to it, huh?”

“Yes, that would be--”

As Lambdadelta continued to speak, she twirled ever-closer to Erika, punctuating her statement with giggles.“Left in an empty room, all alone, wallowing in boredom while your master has countless adventures in worlds far beyond the comprehension of your infinitesimally small mind.”

“Your point.” Erika said, Lambdadelta directly in front of her now.

Lambdadelta pointed towards her, “What if I offered you a deal! A super-deal, even!”

“And what would that be?”

“I need a certain someone in the human realm to become my piece, but she's too blind to submit to me as she is now. Therefore, I need a someone to put her back on the board. Someone who is human.”

“Which would be me, I assume?”

Lambdadelta clapped. “Yes! You got it!”

“But, what would I get out of the deal?”

“That's even simpler—freedom. Until little Bern comes and picks you up, at least.” Then she turned to Dlanor, “And perhaps I could forgive Eiserne Jungrau's violation of my privacy.”

Dlanor gave a slight nod before asking her own question. “And what if she DECLINES?”

Lambdadelta dug into a hidden pocket on her dress, pulling out a small brown piece of candy. “I'll make her eat this!” Erika looked closer at it. It looked like any other piece of chewy chocolate. Knowing Lambdadelta, it could just be chocolate. Or it could be something much much worse. “...And I'll make sure that the High Court hears about your exploits, of course.”

Dlanor looked back to Erika. Even without words, Erika knew what she'd recommend. Or what Dlanor would usually recommend, at least. Her actions today had so far been quite out of the ordinary.

Erika knew there was only one real choice here. She met Lambdadelta's eyes. Hopefully Dlanor would forgive her.

* * *

 

Erika was looking down at a small rack of travel brochures. She kneeled over to read one when a lock of black hair fell in front of her eyes.

...Black? She leaned back grabbing a handful of hair and examining it. Her hair was black. That means...She looked at the brochures again.

“Visit the coast! Explore islands! Kawabata cruises!” the one she had been looking at before said across it, a small lion mascot in the corner. When she finally processed what that meant, she wasn't sure whether to laugh or to cry.

Unlike her master, Lambdadelta's powers of certainty were much better at maintaining a fragment than they were at piecing together a new one. For her to be sent back to this point—the final point before she met Bernkastel—doesn't that mean...This is the final point before her fate was certain?

In the end, she had to laugh. As she laughed the loudest laugh she could, she turned and walked away from the rack. She had better things to do than go die off the coast on some rock.

When she stepped outside of the office and into the sun, she heard someone call her voice. She turned to see the foreign girl's platinum ringlets bounding off her shoulders.

“I was looking for you, Erika-san!” the girl managed to get out, only mildly garbling her pronunciation. She didn't look worried, but Erika knew she was.

Erika didn't say anything, taking in the beautiful sight she'd almost forgotten. Was forgetting her a stipulation from when Bernkastel had saved her? Or was this an aberration of this fragment, brought into being by Lambdadelta's will and Dlanor's certainty?

“Erika-san? Did you figure out where we're going?” the girl said, off-put by Erika's neutral reaction.

Erika pushed her hand into her purse, pulling out a candy wrapper. Scrawled across it was a name.

Dlanor read it then then looked up at Erika. “Who is Takano Miyoko?”

Erika shook her head. “I don't know, but I've never found a mystery I couldn't solve.” she stuffed the wrapper back into her purse, then grabbed Dlanor's hand. “Are you going to come along?”

Dlanor's hand was warmer than it had ever been in heaven.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be honest, it's up in the air if I do a follow-up to this.


End file.
